February 23, 2017

NM cities push back against Trump immigration policies

Three of the state’s largest cities highlighted their opposition to Donald Trump’s immigration and border policies this week.

The moves come as President Donald Trump has given more power to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to apprehend immigrants in the country illegally. The move appears to show wider enforcement against both those with criminal records and those without.

In Albuquerque, the city council* approved a memorial reaffirming the city’s “immigrant-friendly” status. The move came in front of a packed crowd that included many who were unable to fit in the chambers.

The vote was 6-1, with councilors Trudy Jones voting against and Dan Lewis and Don Harris not present.

The symbolic measure echoed a 2000 unanimous vote to call Albuquerque an “immigrant-friendly city.” The 2000 measure also barred the use of city resources to apprehend people based solely on their immigration status.

The policy also added new policies, including educating City of Santa Fe employees on the new two-tiered driver’s license system and stopping the city from participating in the federal “e-verify” system. The proposal also seeks education on civil rights for immigrant families and businesses.

Since 1999, the city of Santa Fe has barred the use of city resources for enforcement of federal immigration law.

Santa Fe Mayor Javier Gonzales has been an outspoken critic of Trump’s rhetoric and actions on immigration, and has vowed for the municipality to remain a “sanctuary city.” The term sanctuary city does not have a specific legal definition.

In Las Cruces, city councilors opted to oppose a border wall. The 6-1 vote Tuesday was on a resolution that said such a wall would hurt New Mexico’s relationship with Mexico, which is a key trade partner for the state.

“I think there are numerous reasons, and there are people in this audience I know who have very strong personally held reasons why this wall should not occur, but for us in our jurisdiction as representatives of the city of Las Cruces, I believe the impact on our economy and the fact it would impact our cultural connection with our neighbors — those are the two prevailing and strong reasons why I first presented this resolution.”

The lone city councilor to vote against the measure was Ceil Levatino.

*Pat Davis is an Albuquerque city councilor and a cosponsor of the memorial. Davis is the executive director of ProgressNow New Mexico, which helps find funding for NM Political Report. Neither Davis or anyone else at ProgressNow New Mexico has any editorial input on this or any other story, including story selection.

Correction: This story originally said there were no new policies in the Santa Fe resolution. There were a number of new policies in addition to reaffirming previous policies. This post has been updated to reflect that.

Friday afternoon, Albuquerque middle and high school students took over a corner of the University of New Mexico's Johnson Field—and then a busy intersection nearby—to demand action on climate change. Alyssa Ruiz from Sandia High School told the crowd that while the United States plans to spend more than a billion dollars building a wall along the U.S./Mexico border, the Trump administration's proposed budget for 2020 cuts spending on renewable energy.

This story was originally published by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at revealnews.org/podcast.

The U.S. Department of Defense listed military construction projects from across the world that could lose funding under a national emergency declaration by President Donald Trump. Included among those are projects at military facilities in New Mexico.

The children of a man shot and killed by an Albuquerque police officer will receive $375,000 in a legal settlement from the city, four years after they first sued the city of Albuquerque. On Tuesday morning, state court judge Denise Barela-Shepherd approved the settlement agreement between city attorneys and lawyers for the three children of Mickey Owings.

Santa Fe voters will rank their choices for mayor in a few months, avoiding the need for a runoff election. The State Supreme Court Tuesday denied an appeal of the city’s new ranked-choice voting system.

Holtec International was in the news last month when the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied requests from some groups to hold an additional hearing over the company’s license to build an interim storage site in southeastern New Mexico to hold nuclear waste from commercial power plants.

Matthew Reichbach is the editor of the NM Political Report. The former founder and editor of the NM Telegram, Matthew was also a co-founder of New Mexico FBIHOP with his brother and one of the original hires at the groundbreaking website the New Mexico Independent. Matthew has covered events such as the Democratic National Convention and Netroots Nation and formerly published, “The Morning Word,” a daily political news summary for NM Telegram and the Santa Fe Reporter.
Matthew has appeared as a panelist for the Society of Professional Journalists’ New Mexico Chapter’s panel on covering New Mexico politics and the legislature.
A native New Mexican from Rio Rancho, Matthew’s family has been in New Mexico since the 1600s.